Maui Makers » Sustainabilityhttp://www.mauimakers.com/blog
Having Fun Making and Learning Together in Paradise!Mon, 02 Mar 2015 08:41:00 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1Laser Etched Deerskin Moccasinhttp://www.mauimakers.com/blog/2013/12/laser-etched-deerskin-moccasin/
http://www.mauimakers.com/blog/2013/12/laser-etched-deerskin-moccasin/#commentsWed, 04 Dec 2013 23:24:34 +0000http://www.mauimakers.com/blog/?p=1973People ask me what I make – and that can be tough to give a simple answer. This past summer (2013) I worked on a whole lot of different projects… the usual arduino/electronics, satellites, farming, and this one – a pair of moccasins. This project had a long gestation. I initially discovered Teri Edmonds store “If The Shoe Fits” several years ago, and noted that she also offers classes under the “Maui Shoe Academy” name.

Teri’s store is both a retail and repair center, selling and fixing both men and women’s shoes. Her specialty is out-of-norm sizes, with nice slippahs (aka flip flops for mainlanders) in sizes to fit a badly underserved local community (size 13+). She has her own shoe design too – the Hot Bisket.

Teri teaches four basic classes three times a year… Accessories, Sandal-in-a-Day, Handbag and Moccasin. I wear LLBean Camp Moc almost exclusively, so the moccasin class caught my eye. The moccasins Teri has in her shop (and teaches) are calf high boots rather than quick slip-ons, however they look cool and I am always looking to learn new skills, so I decided to take the class.

Teri and I talked a number of times about Makers, shoe making, etc. but it took a few times to get me into her schedule for moccasin class. And then I had to leave town the 2nd weekend of the class (for a workshop on making satellites.) Fortunately Teri was very understanding and helpful, allowing me to come back a couple times to work in her store to finish the boots.

Usually the class makes moccasins from cow hide, however, I got very lucky and hooked up with a local Maui provider of brain-tanned deer skin. We have a LOT of deer here on Maui (and other islands). These Axis Deer (aka Chital) were introduced on Moloka’i in 1867, Lana’i in 1904 and Maui in 1959. They have no natural predators and have been very damaging to the native forests (along with other feral ungulates like wild pigs and goats)… so much so that parts of these islands have been defoliated. There are ongoing efforts to control the populations. The worst of these used aircraft carrying hunters to shoot them from the sky, leaving the carcasses to rot on the ground. The most common are the local and tourist deer hunters, which usually get turned into delicious venison for locals. The best I’ve seen so far is a new program on Moloka’i with a USDA approved/monitored venison production facility. Unfortunately, most of the hides from all of these sources go unused (often simply buried). It takes a fair bit of time/effort to make buckskin, but the results are quite nice. I’ve been in discussion with my provider to see if we can get some classes in brain tanning here – so we can develop this great local resource. (go read up on the Feral Ungulate issues at Maui Deer Culling).

Since the deer are rather small, I needed two hides to make my moccasins. One was natural colored, the other the rich brown that comes from smoking the hides. Teri suggested we use one hide for the back and the other for the front sides. This worked out quite well. The first day of the class we cut out the pieces from the hides and punched holes where they would be sewn. This took a LOT of time… more than the full day of work even. I had to borrow a hole punch and work on mine while on the road the following week.

When I got back to Maui, I upped the design ante on my moc’s by laser engraving designs into them. I used several designs from previous projects. The toes got a tribal face originally created with Rachel Deboer for body painting. The front got a gecko stencil created by David Fields and used for the SourceMaui CORE effigy at Burning Man 2013. On the back side I put the islands of Maui, with the Maui Makers logo on the heel.

Once I got the parts prepared, the sewing started. Lots of sewing. Very glad we pre-punched the holes, as it would have been very tiring to push that needle through two layers for that many holes. First the front, back and tongue were sewn together, which gave us a good idea of how awesome these would look…

Teri glued the insoles to the soles with her special paste…

I sat out in the back yard and sewed for a good long while. The results, while still not finished were good enough to be worn out for a few events…

The last step was adding the real sole. Teri, being a cobbler, had a good selection and chose some nice Vibram material.

We cut the basic shape, glued it and then Teri used her talents and cool tools to finish the sole. Gotta love and respect a woman who owns and knows how to use tools like these!

The prototype is a small styrofoam ice chest that will be full of chilled water – chilled by containers of ice floating in it. A small submersible fountain pump circulates the water thru a small loop of 1/2″ copper tube. The idea is there will be condensation on the copper tube and it will drip onto a small planter of “starts”.

Laura Burkhart of Sustainable Living Institute of Maui (SLIM) is hosting it and creating the educational materials to go along with it. Today, she and I hacked together the basic demo box. Pictures will be posted shortly.

The festival runs 9am-4pm on the lū‘au grounds of Maui Tropical Plantation in Waikapū. The general event is free and open to the public. They also have a “Taste Education” tent in partnership with Slow Food Maui, where you can taste food prepared by chefs and farmers from the island, and learn how to grow, and prepare locally sourced food. That part cost $25/adult presale, $30/adult at gate. There is a flyer (pdf) on the Far Bureau site with details

]]>http://www.mauimakers.com/blog/2011/03/gghc-chill-box-prototype-at-ag-fest/feed/0GGHC Chill Box week 2 (or 3?)http://www.mauimakers.com/blog/2011/03/gghc-chill-box-week-2-or-3/
http://www.mauimakers.com/blog/2011/03/gghc-chill-box-week-2-or-3/#commentsMon, 28 Mar 2011 21:02:38 +0000http://www.mauimakers.com/blog/?p=618Our first post to the element-14 site is up. This is a Group Blog on the element-14 site. You can comment, etc there by joining the element-14 site, then joining the Group.

Basically it gives a background on our space and the Chill Box project. Here is the summary I posted for the project:

Our project for the Great Global Hackerspace Challenge is called The Chill Box. It will be a demonstration of Chilled Soil Agriculture. The basic idea is to use cold water to chill the soil, and air above a garden bed. This has two purposes. First, the water will condense from the air in soil and above the garden, irrigating the plants. With sufficient natural humidity and proper chilling, it is possible to elimiate extra watering. Second, there are many plants that grow well at altitude or in colder climates but do not do well near sea level and/or in semi-tropical environments. When these plants have their roots chilled properly (not too much, not too little), they are stimulated to grow properly. The basic idea and early demonstrations of Chilled Soil Argiculture were done at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA). NELHA is an education and research facility founded in 1974 for research into the uses of Deep Ocean Water in ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) renewable energy production. One project uses the cold ocean waters for chilled agriculture demonstration gardens.

Our project intends to demonstrate and educate the use of Chilled Soil Agriculture without deep ocean water. We plan to use peltier elements to provide electronic cooling to the water that will be circulated through our garden boxes. A micro-controller will use temperature, humidity, soil and leaf moisture sensors to determine when and how much chilling to provide. This will allow us to avoid some of the overwatering that can occur, take advantage of high humidity and avoid attempting to dehumidify dry air. Peltier elements can be harvested from CPU/GPU cooling and also from electronic refridgerator and dehumifier systems.

There is some confusion about what week this is (2 or 3). However, the deadline for completion is April 30. We plan to meet at least every wednesday at a location TBD. Cole may have secured us a small space in Pu’unene with the Community Workday folks.

Your hackerspace will create a project to help with education, using US$900 (or equivalent) provided by Element14. The project must use a microcontroller and a portable power source.

You have 6 weeks to complete your project, documenting your project as you go. All spaces that complete their project will receive 10 soldering setups.

Three hackerspaces’ projects will be chosen as finalists to present at the Grand Finale at the San Francisco Maker Faire. All three of these spaces will receive some really nice electronic test equipment. One person from each space will be flown out to present their project at the San Francisco Maker Faire over the weekend of 21-May & 22-May.

One project will be chosen at the Grand Finale at the San Francisco Maker Faire to receive some extra goodies, including a very nice oscilloscope.

Our plan is build a Chilled Soil Agricultural Demonstration – aka Chill Box. This system will circulate chilled water through (above) soil in a window box sized container. The chilled water serves several purposes. The main purpose is to condense water from atmosphere onto the soil. Secondary purposes are related to growing temperate and high altitude plants in a semi-tropical/sea level environment. We have already had strong interest expressed by the Sustainable Living Institute of Maui (SLIM) and representatives of the Maui County Dept of Water Supply. Our intent is to use a peltier device to provide Thermo-electric Cooling controlled by a microprocessor using humidity and moisture and various other sensors to chill the water. We intend to use a solar power panel to provide portable power, coupled with a deep cycle marine battery so the system can operate at night, when there may be higher humidity.